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This
article by Bruce Hammonds, from way back in 2006 when the light of the
developing New Zealand Curriculum document was beginning to illuminate primary
school education (in comparison to the educational dark ages that we are
presently enduring) looks at Seymour Sarason’s book ‘The Predictable Failure of
School Reform.’ Published in 1993, this book proves that our politicians are
learning failures.

‘… eight ways of looking at
intelligence—eight perspectives provided by the science of learning. A few
words, first, about that term: The science of learning is a relatively new
discipline born of an agglomeration of fields: cognitive science, psychology,
philosophy, neuroscience. Its project is to apply the methods of science to
human endeavors—teaching and learning—that have for centuries been mostly
treated as an art. As with anything to do with our idiosyncratic and
unpredictable species, there is still a lot of art involved in teaching and
learning. But the science of learning can offer some surprising and useful
perspectives on how we educate young people and how we guide our own learning.
And so: Eight Ways Of Looking At Intelligence.’

Hyperbole about Online Learning is
Not Supported by Research (via Save Our Schools Australia)

One
of the corporate dreams is that education can be provided via online tuition,
thus cutting out the middlemen (teachers) and also to increase their profit
streams. The usual players (Murdoch, Pearson Group, McGraw Hill, for example)
are already working on this in the USA and most likely in Australia and New
Zealand - have NZ schools wondered why there has been so much emphasis on
ensuring all schools have access to ultra fast broadband? Just a thought….

Sugata
Mitra has received many accolades for his research with children and learning
with computers. Without doubt he has made some extremely vital discoveries,
but, as with all new developments, it also pays to look at the other side of
the equation, so that we do not follow trends (learning styles for example!)
Skepticism is healthy… even if these articles reference JohnHattie…...

‘Maybe that’s why
teachers get so little respect. It’s hard to respect a skill that is so hard to
quantify. So, maybe you just have to take our word for it. The next time you
walk into a classroom, and you see the teacher calmly presiding over a room full
of kids, all actively engaged in the lesson, realize that it’s not because the
job is easy. It’s because we make it look easy. And because we work our asses
off to make it look easy. And, yes, we make it fun, too.’

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Since the
announcement of NZEI, NZPF, AIMS, and CPA joining together to oppose PaCT and
national standards we awaited the response from the anti-public school coalitionof John Roughan of the Herald, Bernadette
Courtney of the Dominion, Treasury, the prime minister, and Hekia Parata. First one out of the blocks was Key,
followed by Courtney.

Biased editorial writer

‘The time has come for teacher unions to accept that
national standards in reading, writing, and mathematics are here to stay,’ she
trumpeted. The first paragraph in an editorial in metropolitan newspaper and a whacking
great mistake.

I am not going to go through in detail the ‘arguments’ of
the Editor except to assure readers that the
editorial has dumb, pudding-like naivety which is the editorial’s main source
of momentum.

But in an early
misstep she says: ‘One of the strongest arguments teachers have advanced
against the standards is that there is a lack of consistency in the way
that they are applied and insufficient moderation at the national level.’

‘One of the strongest …’

There are others?

For an editor setting
out to play dumb, this was a dumb sentence – because it is accurate – a
slipup not to be repeated, however. While she is not quite as adroit as John
Roughan, editor of the Herald in total
she is far more trenchantly dumb.

Then she comes to the
nub of her editorial and the nub of this posting. She responds to claims that
PaCT will undermine teachers‘ professionalism and reduce quality teaching.’

‘The claims are
ridiculous,’ she declares. ‘Ensuring consistent assessment in reading, writing
and mathematics will have no impact on how individual teachers seek to inspire,
guide and educate their charges.’

No impact … the gall
is breathtaking.

Thousands upon
thousands of articles, many based on research have shown otherwise, and
hundreds of books, and she knows it, but she is playing dumb. This is
dumber than dumber.﻿

One standard to rule them all!!

So let me see:
reading, writing, and mathematics are going to be measured for standards, that
requires those subjects to be organised for measurement, that requires learning
in those areas to be divided into small learning bites, that requires learning
to be standardised into standards – learning to small, standardised, measurable
bites is an inefficient way to learn, it is a time-wasting way to learn, it is
a less interesting way to learn, it is a less challenging way to learn, and it
leads to an emphasis on ability grouping. All this is bad for children’s
learning. As an example, research in England has shown that the move to
enforced ability grouping in mathematics has been the largest contributor to
England’s plummeting maths achievement. In New Zealand, ability grouping in
maths is now widespread with similar results. The alternative of mathematics based on real-life problem solving has
virtually disappeared.

In reading, an emphasis on ability grouping
and comprehension-type activities has resulted in less independent reading and
love of books. And don’t get me going on the insincere waffle, adjective-
and adverb-laden writing that is being produced. Good work Billy: two metaphors
and look at all those adjectives. Plenty of rubric ticks there.

But it gets worse.
Because teachers, especially New Zealand teachers like to teach more
holistically, the kind of teaching they are forced to do is seen as the
teaching the bureaucrats want, as someone else’s teaching; it’s not
teachers’ preferred way, so creativity and initiative is reduced.

When curriculum areas
are chosen for measurement and national attention, a number of things happen:
the chosen curriculum areas are narrowed and pedagogically corrupted; the
remaining ones neglected. Yet those neglected curriculum areas are
important to the chosen ones and crucial sources of flexible and creative
thinking overall.

When you have an
education change involving high stakes’ measurement and standardisation of
learning, the repercussion throughout the system are profound. What has
been describedabove being just a
fragment of the fallout.

All students to sorted and graded

Teachers know that
the drive by the right for national standards is not really about national
standards but about providing a platform for bureaucratic control and putting
schools down. We know what Editor is setting out to achieve with her
dumbness: Providing an excuse for
politicians and education bureaucrats to take more control over public schools
for the purpose of squeezing the life out of them to the advantage of private
schools. And the refrain she wants to induce: Look at those irresponsible, self-servingteachers rejecting what is good for
children’s education – we’ll have to give more power to bureaucrats and
politicians to force them to do what they ought to be doing.

The Dominion Editor
knows that that PaCT is intended to be used for all kinds of centralised
control. She knows this but plays dumb because this is what she wants.

To the Editor
national standards are about parents knowing ‘how their children are
progressing in the three most important building blocks …’

Don’t make me laugh.

Who needs diversity and creativity

National standards
and testing are not about parents knowing how their children are progressing:
they are about making way for political and bureaucratic authoritarian control
over schools; they are about a rapid
growth of private schools for the children of the more privileged; they are
about international corporations using education as a source of investment and
profit; they are about using education
for the neoliberal propagandising of students; they are about achieving wider social and economic
neoliberal goals; and, cruellythey are about appearing to do something for
less privileged children when they are actually preparingthem to be part of a disposable generation.

The Dominion Editor
knows this and is playing dumb to disguise the real purposes of national
standards and testing. Gates,
McKinsey, Pearson, Murdoch et al, are not

interested in parents knowing how
children in classrooms are progressing – don’t make me laugh (again) – they are interested in how their profit
is going and the spread of ideas to advance that profit. National standards and testing both here
and overseas provide the foundation blocks for all those corporate and neoliberal
purposes. They provide the flags to be planted for neo-colonisation and furthering the power of the corporate elite.

The Editor knows this
but blathers on about parents knowing how their children are progressing.

This is not about
parents knowing how their children are progressing but about parents being
hoodwinked. Youth unemployment will
be the major challenge of the future, but the education being advanced for many
children is an education for stupidity. A concentration on a narrow version
of the 3Rs is not an education for preparing children for the future, it is a
preparation for failure and becoming part of a disposable generation – the
disposable generation being an inevitable outcome of corporate
authoritarianism.Critical and flexible thinking is being suggested as something to
attend to when the 3Rs are accomplished. What nonsense – they should be
present in the education of all children, all the time. Anyway, nearly all
children accomplish the 3Rs, but where
is the learning for critical and flexible thinking? Way down as a priority.
National testing and standards, in the
light of this, can be seen as a fig leaf to cover the doing of nothing real for
children outside the elite class (who will be attending privileged private
schools).

Education ought liberate creativity

The Dominion Editor
knows all this but does not care, she is on a very different trajectory, a
neoliberal trajectory, away from the common good encompassed in the social
contract, to a market-driven ideology that emphasises individual solutions to
economically and socially produced problems; to an ideology of carelessness and
cruelty based on fear, humiliation, and obedience. She is on a trajectory
where trust is viewed with suspicion because human motivation is seen as
grasping and predatory and where the
template for the organisation of society is corporate greed.

The Editor knows that
if teachers are given the autonomy to be creative, children will learn to think
flexibly and to be critical in their thinking. Children educated in a humane,
diverse, and democratic environment; children who develop their own voice –
will be more likely challenge corporate authoritarianism and not allow
themselves to become tools of an uncaring instrumental tool of repression. STOP PRESS: IT GETS WORSE

‘It seems as if the same battle is
being fought in every aspect of American society. On one side are the forces of
egalitarianism, economic opportunity and self-determination. On the other is a
well-funded and entrenched elite bent on hijacking our media, our political
process and our institutions for their selfish ends. Sadly, the classrooms of
this country haven't been spared.’

This US article examines the
rhetoric that common core standards are necessary to prepare children for
employment and tertiary studies. The connection to national standards rhetoric
in New Zealand is very obvious.

‘The second concern is justifying
the Common Core on the highly dubious notion that college and career skills are
the same. On its face, the idea is absurd. After all, do chefs, policemen,
welders, hotel managers, professional baseball players and health technicians
all require college skills for their careers? Do college students all require
learning occupational skills in a wide array of careers? In making the
"same skills" claim, proponents are really saying that college skills
are necessary for all careers and not that large numbers of career skills are
necessary for college.’

Telling Time with a Broken Clock:
The trouble with standardized testing

Very
comprehensive article by Canadian teacher Joe Bower.

‘Ask any parents
what their long-term concerns and goals are for their children, and seldom will
you hear about test scores and world rankings. Their concerns are compelling,
existential and heartfelt. Parents want their kids to be happy, hard-working,
motivated, responsible, honest, empathetic, intelligent, collaborative,
creative and courageous.’

‘Ultimately,
there are three ways to get people to do something you want them to do.One is
to force them, by making the consequences for not complying onerous or
unacceptable. The second is to lure them, by offering some sort of bribe or
incentive. The third is to get them excited about your ideas, whereupon they
may engage with enthusiasm. In my experience, real change in education only
comes with the third of these methods, because the first two inspire more
resistance than cooperation.’

‘After more than ten
years of national education policies like No Child Left Behind and Race to the
Top, the words accountability and assessment have become synonymous at many
public schools with high-stakes testing. The two government programs have
attached consequences and rewards to standardized test scores, leading many
educators to believe they have to teach to the test. But, as the well-known
argument goes, teaching prescribed math and reading content doesn’t help
students build the skills like creativity, problem-solving and adaptability
they need to adapt in the world outside of school.’

The
concept of inquiry learning goes back a very long way to the Ancient Greek
philosopher Socrates. One of his reporting sayings was "I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance." I can
think of many politicians who would do well to adopt the same self belief. This
quote highlights the relevance of Socrate’s philosophy to the 21st century
educational environment, without a standardised test in sight.

‘Socrates
believed that we learn best by asking essential questions and testing tentative
answers against reason and fact in a continual and virtuous circle of honest
debate.We need to approach the contemporary knowledge explosion and the
technologies propelling this new enlightenment in just that manner. Otherwise,
the great knowledge and communication tsunami of the 21st century may drown us
in a sea of trivia instead of lifting us up on a rising tide of possibility and
promise.’

Friday, June 14, 2013

There’s increasing evidence that the forces of educational darkness
are being repelled in many countries. The tipping point will come, seemingly
out of nowhere and the neoliberal standardised education nightmare will rapidly
collapse. Keep fighting!

Alfie Kohn is another educational
commentator who is always worth reading. This article examines the current
focus on measuring school and pupil progress through numbers, that underpins
GERM.

‘The reason that standardized
test results tend to be so uninformative and misleading is closely
related to the reason that these tests are so popular in the first place.
That, in turn, is connected to our attraction to -- and the trouble with -- grades,
rubrics, and various practices commended to us as “data-based.” ‘

‘Has
the ideal of school as a place to become a critical thinker, an engaged
citizen, given way to the ideal of school as Alma Mater to corporate America,
giving birth to the educated consumer? Are schools creating citizens or
consumers? What do you think?’

‘A
coalition of (USA) educators, researchers, parents, activists and elected
officials issued what signees are calling an “Education Declaration” on Tuesday
that lists seven key principles on which genuine school reform should be guided
for the 21st century and starts from the premise that public education is “a
public good.”

The
document offers a progressive approach to school reform that includes ensuring
that teachers are properly trained and respected, that opportunities to learn
for all students are paramount and that learning must be “engaging and
relevant.”’

A second article from
the Washington Post, this time by Marion Brady - another name for your must
read list. Does this seem familiar to you?

‘The big new thing in education reform is the Common Core State Standards initiative. Not everyone
is a fan. Gene Glass, former president of the American Educational Research
Association, calls the standards an “idiots’ solution to a misunderstood
problem. That problem: an archaic curriculum that will prepare no child for
life in 2040 and beyond.”

I’m with Dr. Glass. I oppose the standards because they
reinforce rather than rethink a curriculum that can’t do the job.’

Educational researcher John Hattie
(described by an Australian newspaper as ‘the rock star of educational
research’ - actually he’s just a comprehensive number cruncher) has made a big
issue about the importance of feedback. His evidential claim is poor; however
he does have a point. Here’s a much more authoritative article.

Monday, June 10, 2013

It was great to pick up a new book ‘ Connecting Curriculum,Linking learning’ NZCER 2013 which provides portraits of creative teachers'
practice in an era that sees an emphasis on narrowing teaching through the
emphasis on National Standards and assessment focussing teacher’s attention
unhealthily on literacy and numeracy.

The authors of the book believe that it is possible to
balance standards with innovation if teachers hold true to their beliefs but
unfortunately it is all too easy for schools to comply. The book is a welcome reminder to hard working
creative teachers that they are not alone.

The authors write that we need to look to the creative work
going on in real classrooms, particularly in the writings of New Zealand’spioneer creative teachers, rather than importing failed overseas programmes
such as National Standards and Charter Schools. The authors write that ‘we know
that students’ learn best when engaged, challenged and inspired. We know that
many important skills in numeracy and literacy are learned in various contexts
and not in relation to set targets. We also know that integrated and negotiated
curriculum provides students with ways to achieve ownership of their learning.
Children have an innate curiosity about the world around them, and learning
invariably follows when their curiosity is piqued’.

Gay acknowledges the influence of Elwyn, an earlier
principal of her present school Stan Boyle, and, in present time, educational language consultant Gail Loane ,who also advocates the use of children’s
experience and ideas as inspiration rather than teacher prescribed formula, and her current principal Irene Cooper The
teachers I have worked with in the past will relate well to Gay’s work but even
more so those feeling trapped in current increasingly conformist environments.

At first Gay encourages her students to notice details and textures
along with exploring ways children can use their pencils to draw. This slowing
the pace encourages children time to think about whatever they are observing.
Gay assists the process by using close up photos of beaks, eyes, claws screened
on the interactive whiteboard.﻿

An amazing rooster

As the children sketched questions and thoughts were
captured to be called on later to develop poetic and scientific language
responses and to deepen the quality of their work.Children ideas are celebrated and shared to inspire others who, by hearing each other’s rich
language, are ‘spurred to find their own voice.’ Gay challenges her class to
think more creatively about their way of expressing ideas pushing then past
cliché and hackneyed phrases. By such means Gay encourages all her students to
be ‘real’ authors. By sharing adult examples of writing Gay’s students become
aware of language feature such as simile and metaphor and the use of vivid
imagery. It is important for Gay that children do not copy other writers but
rather to ‘learn from them and gain inspiration from the ways in which they
weave magic with words’.

Gay also writes a
piece of her own to model for the children believing that ‘teachers need to
know what it feels like to write like a poet, and it is only in the crafting of
one’s writing that people realise the challenges and joy of such work’. She
invites her class to critique her writing showing that it a draft that requires
editing – she asks for their help in improving her effort helping them
appreciate creative process and the need to for poetry ‘to be cut to the bone’.

Gay uses a range of writing scaffolds for children to
explore in their own unique way and suggests that their title is ‘likely to emerge
at the end of the process as authors cannot predict in advance what will be
written because it emerges in the creative act’. She continues,‘When engaged in the creative process,
whether it be poetry or visual art, we need to be willing to explore the
unknown, make errors, refine ideas and tolerate the uncertaintyrequired.’ In reality this applies to all learning,
maths and science included arises through reflection on experiences that
challenge our preconceptions - something John Dewey wrote about more than a century ago.

Gay continually monitors her room to see if any children are
struggling and works with children who are having difficulties – in difficult
cases she scribes ideas for such children eliciting responses through
questioning and encouragement of their ideas. Through this means she boosts
their confidence engendering a feeling of pride and helps develop self-belief.
Every now and then Gay may stop the class and with the child’s permission share
a gem from someone’s writing.

When it comes to developing larger pieces of creative art
Gay makes it clear she wants her children to be creative – to use creative
licence. Her approach is to make the process liberating and playful.

I art, as in writing,
Gay provides a process to encourage bold unique pieces of work. Children create
chalk drawings first which is easily rubbed out and painted over. No attempt is
made to have her children become mini Van Goghs or Monets. She wants her
students to develop as artists in their own right.

The paintings unfold as an ‘organic, problem solving
approach’ assistance given at the ‘teachable moment’, both teachers and peers
modelling ideas setting children up as
their own experts. ‘A wise teacher knows that children will discover more than
can be predicted in advance.’ ‘The freedom to experiment benefits children and
is developmentally appropriate. Also famous artists use trial and error to home
their skills’. As, I might mention, do scientists but, in art, Gay writes
creative art ‘should be a reflection of who they are and what they bring to the
work – each piece is as personal as a fingerprint’. It is expected that
children will be able to explain what they are learning.

Taranaki teacher; Bill Guild

In painting children are given primary colours plus white
and black and medium brushes to begin and the paintings take a series of
focussed 1 to 2 hour sessions until the A3 sheets are covered. Once paintings
are dry finer brushes are provided to add detail and later pastel to add
textual qualities.‘The teacher’s job is
draw attention to significant artistic breakthroughs that children make and
share these with the class. This builds up a cohort of peer expertise ….raising
the quality of the final products. It also proclaims to everyone that
creativity, risk taking And problem solving are valued.’

‘In order to honour what is completed, the work needs to be
displayed with respect.Completed work
around the current study , including language , art and research are displayed
with a ‘blurb’ about the process so that parents, caregivers and other visitors
are helped to ‘read’ the workand understand the depth of thinking that
underpins the making of art’ – and this applies other work on display. Such
displays illustrates to all the ‘myriad ways in which art foster persistence
problem solving, informed judgement, critical thinking and depth of perception’.
The displays ‘say much about the value the teacher gives’ to her student’s
work.

There is no doubting Gay’s influence in guiding her
children’s learning; ‘Quality art and writing do not emerge from a permissive
approach that leaves children to their own devices’. ‘ The teacher is part of
the creative process , which could be viewed as a co-constructed series of
events ‘from the decision to bring the chickens to schools to the sharing of
published writing, the teacher skilfully shaped and refined children’s
learning’. This ‘cumulative outcome of adult-child collaboration’ approach
would also apply to children developing research about the chickens arising
from their questions.

Mix of observation, process and imagination

Creative teachers like Gay learn through experience the artistry as to
when to assist and what skills might be required for individual or groups of
students to achieve quality outcomes in all areas of learning.

The chapter focusses on language and art but it is important
to note that in such classrooms traditional literary skills are not neglected –
the opposite is the case traditional skills of literacy provides the means for
students to find out about things that have captured their curiosity.‘Literacy’, the authors write, ‘is high stakes in the world
and we do our students a disservice if we do not grow their literacy power.
However we, we also do them a disservice if we ignore their creative, imaginative,
visual skill’.

Gay’s creative approach to teaching brings to the forefront
‘the children’s views of the world and their imaginative perspectives are
brought to life through processes that build skills and foster creativity’. ‘This’,
the authors say, ‘is surely what schools should do.’

Such a creative approach exposes students to the risky
business of real world learning. ‘One of the vital elements in creativity is
the ability to tolerate feelings and struggles that comes from bringing
something new into being.’The chapter
concludes saying ‘the last thing we as teachers should do is stifle their
tolerance of the inevitable uncertainties inherent in the creative process’.

All the chapters in the book ‘ reveal high levels of
democratic pedagogy’ with teachers and students ‘are actively involved in
negotiating and developing classroom curriculum.’ In such environments ‘where
students co-construct the learning process, there is a redress of power
relationships’.

All the examples in the book illustrate the importance of
narrowing the focus of inquiry, focussing on big ideas, and to draw on the
various learning areas only if required.The chosen examples see students as ‘capable
and competent’. Students where students ‘pursue their work “as if” they were
scientists, writers, designers …’In
examples chosen ‘students were scaffolded to take on increasingly adult-like
responsibilities and were expected to wrestle with problems’. ‘Without well
timed tensions or challenges, integrated studies can easily revert to a series
of activities that may engage students but not extend their thinking.’‘The teacher’s ability to discern the
opportunities to deepen learning was critical’ and this ‘required quality
questioning and reflection by both teachers and students’.

All examples in the book the authors conclude are, ‘about
bringing children’s voice to the forefront’ and to ‘give them a say in a
curriculum that matters to them. Teachers are not passive in this process, but
are actively involved alongside their students, posing questions, speculating
and provoking. In treating their students as experts, they raise their
expectations of them, which inevitably leads to deepening learning.’

This book is an antidote to the current formulaic approaches
to learning, the narrowing effects of National Standards and the
de-professionalism of teachers. Instead it ‘focuses on learning…..brought to
life through the curiosity, struggles and hard-earned insights of students.’It is a book that celebrates the talents and
passions of students and the teacher’s role in encouraging them.

It is a book that values the insights of creative teachers
who advocate for ‘deep and engaged learning’.

To me it is all about digging deeply into chosen learning experiences;
to negotiate learning with students, to value student’s questions, and ideas;
and to do fewer things well.

(Apologies for
focussing on the chapter featuring Gay Gilbert’s Hillcrest classroom but, as I
began this blog, her approach resonates with the ideas that I have long
subscribed to. Other readers might not be so particular).

Friday, June 07, 2013

‘Rote
repetition can result in some information being retained, although it is
not a particularly effective method of encoding information into memory.
Why, then, are so many kids forced to learn this way?’

‘A BBC Radio 2 short story competition aimed at children
up to the age of 13 has had 90,000 entries. It's an exercise in creativity but
the words they used have also been put into a database which gives us an
insight into the way they think. Every one of the 40 million words from the
story-writing competition has been collated and analysed by lexicographers at
the Oxford University Press, in order to monitor and track children's
language.Here are some of the
findings.’

‘Reality,
though, is finally catching up with the “reform” movement’s propaganda. With poverty and inequality intensifying, a
conversation about the real problem is finally starting to happen. And the more
education “reformers” try to distract from it, the more they will expose the fact
that they aren’t driven by concern for kids but by the ugliest kind of greed —
the kind that feigns concerns for kids in order to pad the corporate bottom
line.’

Criticism of educational sector groups for
‘roll over and scratch my tummy’ attitude towards the school ‘reformers’ is
rather frequent. This article suggests that the alternative approach would be
more productive.

‘Educators
and our representatives have been on the defensive for so long, many of us have
forgotten one of the lessons of the great strategist Sun Tzu - the best defense is a good offense.’

‘In thinking about the current slate of policies shaping
education, I can’t help but feel we are asking, and attempting to answer, the
wrong questions — questions rife with assumptions; questions that limit
thinking; and questions that quell curiosity rather than fuel it.’